Sinkewitz pleased with Tour of Portugal form

Patrik Sinkewitz has signed with the Professional Continental team ISD-Neri.

(Rolf Jost / Insidesport)

Patrik Sinkewitz keeps his head down and gets on with the job.

(Patrik Pátek)

Patrik Sinkewitz

(Luc Claessen)

Patrick Sinkewitz (ISD-Neri) has declared himself satisfied with his performance at the Volta a Portugal. The German rider rode consistently throughout the eleven days of racing to register a fine fourth-place finish in Lisbon on Sunday.

“It was an important result for me,” Sinkewitz told Cyclingnews. “I couldn’t have done any more. A race with ten stages was never going to be easy for me when I only started my season two months ago, so fourth place was as well as I could have done. After two months of racing it’s a good result.”

Sinkewitz, who rode for PSK Whirlpool-Author in 2009, was left without a team at the start of the season and had to wait until the end of May to find a contract. He previously tested positive for testosterone in 2007 when riding for T-Mobile. He was handed a one-year suspension after co-operating fully with the authorities and giving detailed confessions.

“I trained by myself. I know my body well, so I was able to do that. At the same time, it was difficult to have no objective, just training,” Sinkewitz explained.

Sinkewitz was finally brought in from the cold just ahead of the Tour of Luxembourg, when he signed a deal with ISD-Neri. “My condition was okay, but it was difficult to start in the middle of the year,” he said. “I was signed just five days before going to Luxembourg, so it wasn’t easy to go straight into a race like that.”

Since then, Sinkewitz’s form has been rising steadily, as testified by his display in Portugal, and he will be looking to capitalise on that in the coming weeks.

“I’m hoping that my condition continues to grow while the other riders get tired as we get closer to the end of the season,” Sinkewitz said. “There are a lot of good races for me and the team coming up and we want to do well. I will be at the Trofeo Melinda on Saturday, and a lot of the Italian one-day races in the next two months. I also might go to the Tour of Britain, although it’s the team’s decision. In any case, I hope to race all the way through to Lombardy.”

After his difficulties in finding a team for this season, Sinkewitz is understandably keen to decide on his 2011 team as soon as possible. “I’m not sure for next year yet. For the moment I’m happy to stay with ISD-Neri and the team will be better again next year. But I’ll talk to the team this Friday and see,” he said.